FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mojo Ad
365 McReynolds Hall
Missouri School of Journalism
Columbia, MO 65211-1200

Media Contact:
Alison Mueller, Mojo Ad, abmhc4@mizzou.edu, 314-660-3648

New Professor Barbara Ifshin Brings Disney’s Magic to Mojo Ad

Columbia, Mo. – (Aug. 30, 2007) Former Disney advertising executive Barbara Ifshin has joined the Missouri School of Journalism faculty as an assistant professor of Strategic Communication and the director of account management for Mojo Ad.

Mojo Ad is a student-staffed, professional-services advertising agency that specializes in the youth and young adult market. Since its launch in 2005, Mojo Ad has worked with regional and national clients including Best Buy, Vox Magazine, Albert’s Honda, Television Bureau of Advertising, and Hallmark.

“We are so pleased to have Barbara on staff,” says Jim Sterling, acting chair and professor of strategic communication. “Her talents and real world insights will provide an invaluable learning opportunity for Missouri students.” 

As the senior vice president of advertising and creative services at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Ifshin managed all aspects of global advertising. She developed and led Disney’s in-house agency, called the Yellow Shoes Creative Group, and managed the work of international advertising agencies Leo Burnett and Starcom, both in Chicago. 

Ifshin played a key role in revitalizing Walt Disney World marketing, transforming the advertising from a product approach to emotional ads targeted to both family and adult segments.  The result: an award-winning portfolio that generated six years of record growth in attendance. She hopes to create similar magic to Mojo Ad accounts.

Previously, Ifshin managed national accounts including AT&T, Johnson and Johnson, and Jell-O at Young & Rubicam in New York. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Maryland and a master’s in business administration with an emphasis in marketing from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Ifshin will coordinate her work with other members of Mojo Ad’s management team, Larry Powell, director, worked as an award winning art director and former principal of his own advertising and design firm, Larry Powell and Associates; Stephanie Padgett, director of media, works as the director of client strategy for Walch Communications in Minneapolis, a division of Empower Media that focuses on marketing for schools; and Nell Lukosavich, client services manager, works in new business development and manages the intern program for a New York-based up-and-coming snack food company, Dale and Thomas. 

“I am excited to return to my journalism roots and teach at such a renowned institution,” said Ifshin. “I find the combination of teaching and working with a student-staffed agency to be unique and irresistible.  Mojo is an innovative concept and I am thrilled to be a part of it. ”

In addition to Mojo Ad, Ifshin’s teaching commitments include the management and capstone campaigns courses in the strategic communication area of study.

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